Today is April Fool’s Day. It was sunny but quite cold when I heaved myself out of bed this morning. I had scheduled a morning of meetings so after a bite to eat and some coffee at home I hoofed it over to Sharla’s Coffee Stop to make my connections. Jenna and Sharla provided their usual outstanding service and the nitro cold brew with a bit of half & half was outstanding. Spiritual and life coach #1, Pastor Nate, just happened to be there working on his Doctor of Ministry assignments so we had to have a brief chat while Jenna prepared my nitro.
Rich was my first meet-up. He and I have known each other for several years and have worked together in a variety of capacities. We connect on a number of levels, and he provides great perspective for some of the meanderings of my mind. Our conversation today was most productive, and the synapses were jumping when we finished.
Meet-up number two was Pastor Liz, the other of my two spiritual and life coaches. We covered an entirely different gamut of mind meanderings than did Rich and I. So grateful to have people like this in my life.
By then, as Mabel (my mother) would have said, “The morning was fast going away.” As I walked the 250 steps home, I discovered that, if I dressed appropriately, it was probably warm enough for a foray by bike. (I am not a cold weather biker – too much of a wuss!) I did a quick weather check on my phone and decided to go for it.
Donned the appropriate garb, filled the water bottle, and headed to the garage. Double Shot heard me coming but assumed it was just another false alarm, so I surprised him by taking him down from the hooks. I then proceeded to ensure that everything was working and ready to go. Then it was East on High Street, North on Sunnyside, and then East on Storrs Lake Road to access the Glacial River Trail. Just a mile from my driveway to this point. Then I headed north but hadn’t landed on a goal as I was not at all sure how I would feel.
Well, Double Shot was working amazingly well. He had recently experienced a tune-up and, boy, could I tell. No superfluous noises (other than my breathing and the creaks of my body) no wobbling, shifting and gearing working like a charm. I was clipping along much better than I had hoped and a big part of this was Double Shot’s wonderful condition. I was so pleased but not really shocked at this. My bike dealings are 99.9% exclusively at Bicyclewise in Whitewater. John and Liz are small business owners and are phenomenal human beings. John, and Liz as well, have forgotten more about bikes than I will ever know. I am so comfortable with their knowledge and the way I have always been treated there. I refer to John as the Bike Whisperer. I wish I could get a similar tune-up for my body. I highly recommend them for any of your bicycle needs.
The trail is flat from Storrs Lake Road to Bowers Lake Road. I arrived there feeling good but knew there was an immediate uphill on the north side of Bowers Lake Road. You must begin this ascent from a stop due to the road. I was pleasantly surprised to find the uphill far easier than I had expected it to be. I then realized I could gear-up a bit, make better time and experience a better work-out.
This good feeling continued as I passed the Klug Road Cul-de-Sac and started the ascent just beyond. The ride was going so much better than I expected. Some type of topcoat was added to the Otter Creek Bridge since last season. There is more of a “bump” as you get on the bridge than I would like. Not a huge problem but certainly a bigger bump than I expected. I’m tempted to take some yellow or orange paint and highlight that line but that might be considered vandalism.
After the bridge, the trail heads uphill again to County N. That went well for me also. The fast and usually heavy traffic on N necessitates a stop there. I discovered that I was out of practice unclipping and swinging my leg over the bike to step down. This, of course, has NOTHING to do with age or physical conditioning. It’s about 4.5 miles from my driveway to this spot.
I was feeling good enough that I decided to continue my northward pedaling. The trail on the north side of N is flat with a gradual descent. Of course, the reverse is a gradual ascent. This is important to know for the return trip as is the fact that the most strenuous portion of the trail heading back to Milton is from County N to Bowers Lake Road.
I began to think that I might ride to my 10-mile point before reversing and then I could “book” a 20-miler as my first outing of the year. Remembering my cautions in the previous paragraph, I decided that would not be wise and instead chose the covered bridge as my goal.
The covered bridge is about six miles out. I dismounted to stretch my back a bit before heading south to Milton. My return trip also went well despite it being somewhat up hill all the way. A delightful surprise was encountering Dahliagirl on her new E-Bike as I headed down the hill to the Klug Road “circle.” This was her first ride on this machine, and she was enjoying it. We rode together the rest of the way home. I even made it up the High Street hill to my driveway.
So, feeling very righteous this evening sitting in front of a nice fireplace fire. Just over thirteen miles and feeling pretty good. Overall, a great Friday and beginning of a new month.
#cruzan4milton#GoByBike
No comments:
Post a Comment